Sarasota County official resigns after miscalculating fees

Published: Thursday, December 27, 2012 at 11:29 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, December 27, 2012 at 11:29 p.m.

SARASOTA COUNTY - The county's transportation director has resigned after admitting he made mistakes in calculating new fees that developers will pay for public road improvements.

The incorrect numbers, advertised publicly and disseminated in the community but not yet adopted, were another setback as the county tries to update the road impact fee rates. The impact fees can provide millions of dollars each year for new roads and improvements.

The county's fees were reduced during Florida's economic downturn to spur construction. They are supposed to be updated annually to reflect the current cost of building a road, per state law, but have not been in several years.

Clarke Davis, the transportation director, resigned last Friday after admitting to the mistaken calculations two days before, according to an email from County Administrator Randall Reid to commissioners.

Commissioners have grown frustrated with the delay in updating the rates — something that they publicly asked staff to do two years ago and again this summer.

The elected commissioners have been frustrated for months by what they have called sloppy staff work and misinformation at public meetings.

"It seems that excuses keep being made when in fact this should have all been resolved correctly quite some time ago," Commissioner Joe Barbetta wrote in an email to Reid. "This kind of surprise on the heels of the Siesta Key project delays & misinformation, mowing, ballfields deterioration, etc., causes me great concern."

The county hired a consultant to calculate new fee rates during the housing boom of the mid-2000s, when the fees were not generating enough money to keep up with road needs.

With the crash in the housing market, commissioners lowered the rates in January 2011 to about two-thirds of what the consultant had recommended. Commissioners argued cheaper rates would spur development and help boost the local economy.

Yet the underlying data used to calculate the rates — current asphalt prices and other information — was not updated every year as it was supposed to be.

The update is expected to reduce the rates even further, as road building costs have dropped since the building boom.

After the rate cut in January 2011, Davis was supposed to be responsible for using more recent data to get the rates into compliance with the law. In an email he wrote to his bosses, Davis said the upheaval in county government last year and the family emergency of another staffer working on the project were factors in the delay.

In his email, Davis wrote that he is not sure how fixing the errors will change the rates presented recently to the board — although they will likely be somewhat higher than previously thought.

"I have been candid with (Davis) in my disappointment in this and other processes under his responsibilities," Reid wrote to commissioners.

"To his credit Mr. Davis acknowledged his calculation mistake, accepted responsibility and brought it to us."

Davis' presentation in October confused commissioners as it incorrectly appeared that all the impact fee rates would increase dramatically in the revision. Commissioners later realized that Davis had not taken into account the two-thirds reduction made to the fees.

It is uncertain when the matter will come back before the county commission again.

<p><em>SARASOTA COUNTY</em> - The county's transportation director has resigned after admitting he made mistakes in calculating new fees that developers will pay for public road improvements.</p><p>The incorrect numbers, advertised publicly and disseminated in the community but not yet adopted, were another setback as the county tries to update the road impact fee rates. The impact fees can provide millions of dollars each year for new roads and improvements.</p><p>The county's fees were reduced during Florida's economic downturn to spur construction. They are supposed to be updated annually to reflect the current cost of building a road, per state law, but have not been in several years.</p><p>Clarke Davis, the transportation director, resigned last Friday after admitting to the mistaken calculations two days before, according to an email from County Administrator Randall Reid to commissioners.</p><p>Commissioners have grown frustrated with the delay in updating the rates — something that they publicly asked staff to do two years ago and again this summer.</p><p>The elected commissioners have been frustrated for months by what they have called sloppy staff work and misinformation at public meetings.</p><p>"It seems that excuses keep being made when in fact this should have all been resolved correctly quite some time ago," Commissioner Joe Barbetta wrote in an email to Reid. "This kind of surprise on the heels of the Siesta Key project delays & misinformation, mowing, ballfields deterioration, etc., causes me great concern."</p><p>The county hired a consultant to calculate new fee rates during the housing boom of the mid-2000s, when the fees were not generating enough money to keep up with road needs.</p><p>With the crash in the housing market, commissioners lowered the rates in January 2011 to about two-thirds of what the consultant had recommended. Commissioners argued cheaper rates would spur development and help boost the local economy.</p><p>Yet the underlying data used to calculate the rates — current asphalt prices and other information — was not updated every year as it was supposed to be.</p><p>The update is expected to reduce the rates even further, as road building costs have dropped since the building boom.</p><p>After the rate cut in January 2011, Davis was supposed to be responsible for using more recent data to get the rates into compliance with the law. In an email he wrote to his bosses, Davis said the upheaval in county government last year and the family emergency of another staffer working on the project were factors in the delay.</p><p>In his email, Davis wrote that he is not sure how fixing the errors will change the rates presented recently to the board — although they will likely be somewhat higher than previously thought.</p><p>"I have been candid with (Davis) in my disappointment in this and other processes under his responsibilities," Reid wrote to commissioners. </p><p>"To his credit Mr. Davis acknowledged his calculation mistake, accepted responsibility and brought it to us."</p><p>Davis' presentation in October confused commissioners as it incorrectly appeared that all the impact fee rates would increase dramatically in the revision. Commissioners later realized that Davis had not taken into account the two-thirds reduction made to the fees.</p><p>It is uncertain when the matter will come back before the county commission again.</p>